Donation helps students rise to robotic challenge

John Cleveland College A level student Connor Daldry working on a robot

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Technologically talented students at John Cleveland College are building their own robots.

Pupils from Years 10 to 13 at the Butt Lane college in Hinckley are benefiting from a donation of hi-tech robotic parts, worth more than £1,000, from National Grid.

A lunchtime club has been set up for students keen to see what kind of artificial intelligence they can create.

The sophisticated parts available to them include programmable central cortexes - robotic ‘brains’ - and sensors capable of detecting colour and distance.

Working in teams, students are being challenged to create a robot that can collect inflatable balls and transport them to a desired location.

VEX, the company that supplied the parts, is planning to offer training to the students and to set up a robotics competition with other teams in the area, in the hope of getting a town team into a national robotics competition to be held at the NEC in Birmingham.

The lunchtime club at the Hinckley college has been given a donation of more than £1,000 of robotic parts from National Grid.

Teacher Richard Blackett, who is leading the robotics club, said the apparently light-hearted challenge tested and pushed pupils’ understanding of maths, physics, mechanics, engineering and computer engineering.

Mr Blackett said: “The the benefits of this scheme include practical learning and fault diagnosis, that is, having to work out why something isn’t working.

“It gives gifted and talented students a place to express themselves by making cross-curricular links, which is particularly good for extending students’ skills and showing them useful real-world applications.”

A-level student Connor Daldry, one of those involved in the robotics challenge, said: “Robotics is the future, and VEX allows interested students who want to get into computing to get some experience. It teaches you to expect setbacks and to learn how to revise designs.”